LAHORE, Feb 2: The National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) on Saturday asked retired judges of superior judiciary to voluntarily relinquish their post-retirement positions.

At a meeting held at the Supreme Court’s Lahore registry, the committee expressed concerns over the appointment of superior court judges to posts of “lower status and dignity”.

The committee observed that retired judges should give up such “lower offices” to earn respect among the public and uphold the principle of independence of judiciary.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who is also the chairman of the NJPMC, presided over the meeting. Chief justices of the Federal Shariat Court, Lahore High Court, Sindh High Court, Islamabad High Court, Balochistan High Court and Peshawar High Court attended the meeting.

The CJ said that under the Constitution the state was bound to ensure inexpensive and speedy justice. On its part, the judiciary, being custodian of the Constitution, had to keep a check on arbitrary exercise of powers and promote rule of law in the country.

He said the unprecedented movement of lawyers, civil society and the masses for restoration of independent judiciary, rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution had served to heighten the people’s expectations.

Chief Justice Chaudhry said the national judicial policy (NJP) had been launched with a view to responding to the people’s needs and their heightened expectations after broad consensus and thorough consultation with all stakeholders of justice system.

The committee expressed displeasure over the government’s lukewarm response towards the judiciary’s recommendations for increasing the number of judicial officers. It reiterated that the government was constitutionally bound to ensure inexpensive and expeditious justice to the people not as a concession but as a fundamental right.

The committee took notice of the prevailing law and order situation and terrorist attacks on judicial officers and asked the provincial governments to take all possible measures for protection of the judges enabling them to discharge their duties in a free and fair manner.

The committee also took notice of a news item about pendency of a large number of revenue and fiscal cases in courts. The committee asked the authorities concerned to proceed for recovery of public revenue where there was no stay order granted by any court.

The committee reviewed the performance of district judiciary particularly with reference to old cases.

The high courts presented the statistics about disposal and pendency of old cases in each district of the country.

The committee observed that the results of NJP were quite encouraging as the courts had by and large achieved targets and shortcoming, if any, was primarily on account of persistent shortage of required number of judges and deficient infrastructure.

The CJ pointed out that after application of the NJP the district judiciary had decided millions of cases, including 95 per cent of old cases.